Oppurtunity Rover: 2004-2019

I think if somebody can broadcast a signal strong enough to fix it and get it working again, they should get to keep it.

a reply to: Blue Shift

How about a collaborative ATS effort on that. Imagine how much fun people here would have sending a Mars rover on their own ATS sanctioned missions around the red planet?

Plus, maybe it would break up the never ending monotony of political posts...

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: Assassin82

I saw that the last transmission from Rover was "My battery is low.... It is getting dark"

I wanted to cry.

and a slow chorus of "Daisy, daisy...".


Seriously though, what a magnificent piece of science and engineering. Such a shame it had to stop - what happens to all the project workers now?

originally posted by: OneBigMonkeyToo
Seriously though, what a magnificent piece of science and engineering. Such a shame it had to stop - what happens to all the project workers now?

They all moved on long ago. The entire project is now being run by an intern from Pasadena Community College.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Source: xkcd.com link to this comic.

The mouse-over reads: "Thanks for bringing us along"

Sad to see Oppy go. When's that damn space telescope gonna be launched!!??

We've been having some discussion about Oppy in our house. We've come to the conclusion that Oppy might be an AI robot.

The last message was the clue. Why would you program the rover to talk like that? Wouldn't you want the data to be more informational? Like battery reserve down to 2%. Photo-voltaic activity below minimum levels. Instead it says one of the saddest phrases a machine has ever said.

Then NASA plays a sad song for the rover. Why play a song for a deactivated machine? Especially one they lost eight months ago?

We need to go rescue that droid.

On the serious side I'd like to rescue the rover because that ability would have profound implications for space exploration. It means we could get something and bring it back from the asteroid belt or the surface of the moon. Another step to going out there.

originally posted by: Foundryman
On the serious side I'd like to rescue the rover because that ability would have profound implications for space exploration. It means we could get something and bring it back from the asteroid belt or the surface of the moon. Another step to going out there.

They already did that:
Apollo 12

a reply to: Foundryman

Why play a song for a deactivated machine?

I got that covered ..

a reply to: Assassin82

Hopefully they put drones on the next one. Multiple 28 mile missions could be accomplished 😉

Very weird how they want to humanize this machine.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

who took the picture?

The two labeled as "selfies" were taken by the two respective craft, Opportunity and Insight. The first image, as mentioned above, is only an artists representation of the MER rovers, Opportunity and its twin sister, Spirit.

The black-and-white "selfie" image for the MER rover used the camera on the end of its arm and used multiple images to make a mosaic. Sometimes enough multiple and overlapping images could be put together IN A MOSAIC to basically obscure the arm from the finished mosaic image, making it look as if the picture was taken from a point away from the rover, such as the one of Curiosity Rover shown in this article that is titled:

Why Don’t We See the Curiosity Rover’s Arm When it Takes a Selfie?
[click for article]

Image from article: